


What Hunk Knows

by zjofierose



Series: Form Ficlets! [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Caring, Character Study, Family, Feeding, Fluff, Food, Food Issues, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Found Family, Gen, Homesick Lance (Voltron), Hunk & Keith (Voltron) Friendship, Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Hunk & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Hunk & Shiro (Voltron) Friendship, Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Hunk (Voltron)-centric, Japanese Shiro (Voltron), Light Angst, Minor Allura/Lance (Voltron), Tooth-Rotting Fluff, minor eating disorder mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-30 03:15:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17215967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zjofierose/pseuds/zjofierose
Summary: There are things you learn from food, and from providing it for your family.





	What Hunk Knows

  1. Food goo, in its initial state, should not be considered actual food. However, lightly sauced or spiced and served with a garnish, it’s not as bad as you might think. Hunk has started a small recipe collection on the castle’s database with ideas of how to improve it, and what sorts of additions bring out which flavors in the green, gelatinous, substance. (Hunk would kill for some cookie cutters- food goo would be perfect to make jello jigglers.)  
  
  

  2. Shiro is vegan, but it’s on principle (he’s not comfortable with the idea of living creatures being harmed for his benefit) and thus contextual. He will make occasional exceptions for wild-caught fish in traditional Japanese cuisine, and he’ll drink or otherwise consume things that come from Kaltenecker, because he can see with his own eyes that she’s a fat, happy, and utterly spoiled cow who is suffering no harm from their milkshakes.  
  
Shiro’s survival trained and nobody’s fool, so Hunk has seen him eat meat when the other options are “starve” or “piss off the locals during diplomatic negotiations,” but it’s clear that it makes him unhappy.  
  
  

  3. Keith is also largely vegan, but is much less bothered by situations where he’s not able to stick to it than Shiro. Hunk chalks this up to his inherent pragmatism - if the options are “eat another creature or die,” or really, “ _anything_ or die,” Keith is going to pick whatever option is "not die,” and have no regrets.  
  
  

  4. Lance doesn’t know how to cook for any less than a minimum of ten people. Hunk doesn’t learn this until he gets Lance to help him make cookies about six months into their trip, and can’t figure out how on earth they’ve got so quiznaking _many_ left to bake until the next time they do it and he catches Lance automatically quadrupling the recipe.  
  
It’s not a problem, really: once he knows to account for it, Hunk makes Lance his sous-chef any time they have guests, and never has to worry about whether they’re going to have enough to go around.  
  
  

  5. Pidge will mindlessly consume anything strategically placed in front of her, which is convenient, because she will also forget about things like regular meal times. Left to her own devices, she will eat a relatively balanced diet of extremely strange food combinations largely devoured sometime between the hours of two and five in the morning.  
  
Things Hunk has seen her eat include, but are not limited to: creamed spinach with goldfish crackers and raisins mixed in; macaroni and cheese slathered with spicy thai peanut sauce; peanut butter, purple onion, and fried egg sandwiches. Hunk watches her concoctions with fascination, everyone else eyes them with disgust. Keith, ever the exception that proves the rule, declares the sandwiches delicious and will appear out of the ether like a ghost whenever she pulls out the skillet.  
  
  

  6. Keith likes sharp flavors: brussels sprouts; sauerkraut and kimchi; radishes; rhubarb; strong cheese; dark beer; pickles; sour plum candies. He doesn’t mind spicy, and Hunk nearly cried the time he saw Keith eat a raw onion like it was an apple, but he _really_ goes for fermented foods. Hunk can’t wait to get back to Earth and try him on hákarl and thousand year eggs.  
  
Hunk has wondered if Keith’s predilection for strong tastes is a Galra thing - he considers the theory confirmed when he sees Krolia and Kolivan straight-up murder a wheel of Limburger with nothing but their blades and an appetite.  
  
  

  7. Allura and Coran, it turns out, have insane sweet tooths - apparently Altea had nothing like Earth’s sugar, and they cannot get enough of it. Unfortunately, it turns out that along with having the tastebuds to enjoy sugar, Alteans also have teeth that are capable of getting cavities. It’s a sad day for all concerned when this is discovered.  
  
  

  8. Shiro loves orange food. Mac and cheese is definitely the fav, but he’ll go for any of it: sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, citrus, mango. Hunk isn’t sure if it’s a nutrient craving, a hind-brain "one orange food is delicious, therefore all orange food is delicious" response, or just an imprint from too many years around cadet uniforms, but it holds true for alien foods as well. Hunk's tested the theory at several diplomatic functions and via supply runs that result in them bringing on board unfamiliar produce: if it’s orange, Shiro will eat it and like it.  
  
  

  9. Krolia loves strawberries the most, but is also fond of raspberries. She detests grapefruit.  
  
  

  10. Kolivan, as far as Hunk can tell, has basically no food preferences beyond “more.” Hunk assumes this is the result of too many years of surviving on whatever was at hand. The ill-fated Limburger is the closest Hunk’s ever gotten to seeing a displayed flavor predilection, but he doesn’t feel he can definitively rule out the possibility that Kolivan was just particularly peckish. He has plans to introduce Kolivan to a cheese board, and document the results.  
  
  

  11. Coran, once he gets over his initial discomfiture with having his kitchen usurped, is the most easily pleased out of everyone Hunk has the pleasure of cooking for. He finds something interesting in every flavor experiment, comments at length on the beauty and delicacy of Hunk’s decorative efforts, and will put literally anything in his mouth at least once. It’s a gift, and Hunk is grateful.  
  
  

  12. Hunk feels like Pidge should like baking, because it’s very scientific, but she doesn’t really have the patience for it. She does, however, like to make cocktails.  
  
Pidge making cocktails is a menace, and will be banned from the kitchen, just as soon as Hunk’s past this hangover.  
  
  

  13. Keith weirdly hates junk food. He says it tastes bad, and makes his fingers greasy, and is more than happy to leave it for Lance and Pidge, to their utter delight. Keith is also ambidextrous and can eat with any utensil, provided or improvised, with equal speed and dexterity.  
  
  

  14. Shiro eats about six times a day, not in huge amounts but regular like clockwork as much as possible around the constraints of battle. His sheer size and energy output always required a large dose of calories, Keith confides, but it’s worse since the addition of the Galra arm- it seems to draw power from Shiro himself, and so Shiro has to eat even more to keep up with it.  
  
Hunk makes sure to always have something on hand in the kitchen that’s ready to go and won’t be missed. He gets Coran to build a deep freeze, and spends their occasional downtime making sure that it’s stocked with ready-to-heat entrees that can be grabbed and prepared in doboshes.  
  
  

  15. Matt Holt would sell body parts for tropical fruits, he loves them that much. Small, easily-coped-without body parts, but still. Mango, papaya, pineapple, starfruit, kiwi, guava, he loves them all.  
  
  

  16. Lance is a comfort food junkie - if he could eat pasta and burgers and burritos and pizza continually, he would. Fortunately for Lance, Hunk thinks with no little chagrin, he has the constitution of an ox and the metabolism of a sprinter, so it seems to do him no harm.  
  
  

  17. Keith is a food hoarder. It takes Hunk a while to figure it out, and it’s something Keith’s clearly ashamed of, so Hunk tries not to let on he knows. As far as he can tell, Shiro’s the only other one aware, and will go to great lengths to make sure that Keith has whatever food he needs stashed away in order to feel secure.  
  
Hunk tries not to think too hard about why Keith is this way. He also devoutly hopes that Krolia never notices.  
  
  

  18. Allura and Lance are both stress eaters with oral fixations who show a preference for foods like popcorn or nuts that they can eat with their hands while they think or talk or consider maps or shout. Hunk slides in the odd bowl of carrot sticks to help with the general nutrition, but mostly he lets them graze as needed.   
  
Pidge and Shiro, on the other hand, both lose their appetites when stressed. Shiro will power through and force himself to eat something bland and nutritious, because his body can’t function long without caloric input. Pidge is the opposite, and can’t choke anything non-liquid down until the stress has passed.  
  
Hunk becomes a pro at soup and broth making.  
  
  

  19. Keith doesn’t eat for a week after Shiro disappears. It’s the only time Hunk sees him skip a meal. Lance is the one who finally pins him (literally), and refuses to let him up until he eats. It’s a testament to how needed the intervention is that Keith can’t muster the strength to throw him off.  
  
  

  20. Kosmo hates, _hates_ , dog food.



 

**What Hunk Doesn’t Know:**

  1. How little Garrison food has improved in their time away, and how little nostalgia does to help it.  
  
  

  2. That nightly paladin dinner has become such an ingrained tradition that he will find a small crowd outside his quarters on the Atlas the evening they land, wondering if everything’s alright and when dinner will be ready.  
  
  

  3. It will move to weekly rather than nightly, will more often than not feature at least one dinner guest video-calling in (Allura, Lance, Coran, and Romelle from New Altea; Krolia and Kolivan from their ship; Shiro and Keith from wherever they happen to be), and will change location several times, but Paladin Family Dinner will endure for generations.



 

**Author's Note:**

> this fic brought to you by the unusual (for me) amount of cooking i do around the holidays, and by my partner enabling me.
> 
> me, peeling carrots: I've decided that Shiro likes all orange food, not just mac and cheese.  
> him, from the other room: Shiro's totally a vegan, isn't he?  
> me, pausing over the compost bin: ...yes, yes he is.  
> him, poking his head in the kitchen: Pidge should like baking.  
> me, shaking the peeler at him: She *should*, but I bet she doesn't have the patience for it.  
> him, warming to the topic: Mixing drinks, though...  
> me, cackling: Cocktails! For SCIENCE!


End file.
